A Finnish member of the WHO board, an advisor on vaccines, has received 46
million crowns (6 million euros) for his research centre from the vaccine
manufactures, GlaxoSmithKline. WHO promises transparency, but this conflict of
interests is not available for the public to see at WHO’s homepage.

Another ‘WHO’ vaccine advisor is withholding information concerning
financial support from the pharmaceutical industry.

Professor Juhani Eskola is the director of the Finnish research vaccine
programme (THL) and a new member of the WHO group, ‘Strategic Advisory Group of
Experts’ (SAGE), which gives advice to the WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan.
‘SAGE’ also recommend which vaccines - and how many - member countries should
purchase for the pandemic.

According to documents acquired through the Danish ‘Freedom of Information
Act,’ Professor Juhani Eskola’s Finnish institute, THL, received almost 6.3
million Euro from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for research on vaccines during 2009.

This amount of money qualifies GlaxoSmithKline as THL’s main source of
income.

GlaxoSmithKline produces the H1N1-vaccine ‘Pandemrix,’ which the Finnish
government following recommendations from THL and WHO purchased for a national
pandemic reserve stockpile.

These facts bring Professor Juhani Eskola in line with several other ‘WHO
’experts who play a double role by having financial ties to the pharmaceutical
industry – a double role which notably is not published by WHO.

During November, the Danish daily, ‘Information’ has informed the public that
several members of WHO’s expert group have also been secretly working for the
pharmaceutical industry. Since revealing this information, a record of meetings
and the conflict of interests of some of the experts have become accessible, but
not all, including Juhani Eskola.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

In Finland, Professor Juhani Eskola is at the centre of a national conflict
of interest. The Finnish Minister of Health has become involved in this case and
has asked for transparency concerning the researcher’s financial ties to the
pharmaceutical industry. However, Professor Eskola doesn’t agree that there is a
problem. He secures and protects his ‘WHO’ status, by offering a minor
‘consultative payment’ to the pharmaceutical company, ‘Novartis.’

“Why haven’t you informed the public about a research grant of six million
Euros from GlaxoSmithKline?” Professor Eskola comments, “It is a contract my
chief and GSK have made, and I am not a part of the study, which receives the
money.”

Regarding ‘WHO’s declaration on conflicts of interest, ‘SAGE’ experts are
obliged to inform on all kinds of financial research support, scholarships,
payment for collaboration and sponsor support for the research unit, during the
past three years. “We have 1,400 researchers at ‘THL’ and if I declare every
economic transaction I am a involved in then it gets complicated.

My interpretation of the WHO-declaration was that I didn’t have to declare
the agreement of collaboration with GSK, as I neither receive the money
personally nor do my research team. ‘WHO’ has asked me, and now I wait to be
informed, whether they agree with my interpretation. If they don’t, they should
make their declaration more clear.”

You are chair of the department and during 2009, GSK is your greatest
contributor. Don’t you see a conflict of interests in this matter?

“It is a discussion we have had with the Finnish Minister of Health during
the past few weeks but it is the ministry, who has bought the vaccines, not our
institute. Pandemrix was chosen as the best vaccine and could be available soon
at the Finnish market. The decision had to be made at the beginning of June and
in my mind, the ministry of health chose the right solution, namely Pandemrix.”

But do you recognize a conflict of interest? - “We are aware that there
appears to be a conflict of interest” he says.

“VERY SERIOUS”

According to WHO, all SAGE-members are obliged to inform about all financial
interests, inclusive financing from the pharmaceutical industry, consulting
payments and other forms of professional employment. Meanwhile, WHO has rejected
an invitation to be interviewed about why not all financial interests of the WH
-experts has been declared.

But in a mail WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl writes as follows:

“WHO has recently learned, that the Finnish National Institute for Health and
Welfare has a research contract with GSK. The contract concerns a research
project about pneumococcal-vaccine in the Finnish vaccination programme. WHO
will take suitable action according to everything, which must be considered as
conflicts of interests in this case.”

The Danish journalists have reported on other cases involving SAGE experts
with financial links to pharmaceutical companies, many of which have not been
declared.

Dr. Peter Figueroa, Professor, Public Health, Epidemiology & AIDS,
Department of Community Health & Psychiatry, Faculty of Medical Sciences,
University of the WestIndies, Jamaica, received money
from Merck.

Dr. Neil Ferguson has received funding Baxter, GlaxoSmithKline und Roche as
well as insurance companies that he advised about pandemics but this was only
revealed after publicity.

Professor Malik Peiris, Department of Microbiology, the University of Hong
Kong, Faculty of Medicine, Hong Kong has received money from Baxter GSK und
Sanofi Pasteur.This is not declared on the Who website.

In a new development, Finnish Ministry of Social and Welfare has authorized
the National Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) to purchace another 5.3
million H1N1 pre-pandemic vaccines for the whole population of Finland, adding
to the existing stockpile of 5.3 million H5N1 vaccines and a contract to
purchase another 5.3 million vaccines.

Below is a correspondence with WHO on the conflict of interest of Eskola by
a Finnish citizen, revealing staff of WHO scrambling to whitewash their failure
to declare Eskola's conflict of interest:

Correspondence with WHO, December 2009 is enclosed below. For some news
coverage on the conflict of interest issue on WHO's pandemic declaration and
vaccine expert groups, see Dagbladet Information (Denmark), Svenska Dagbladet
(Sweden) and Kauppalehti (Finland). For WHO instructions on what experts are
required to report, see quote below. For exact financial information from money
transactions from GlaxoSmithKline to professor Eskola's employer THL (Finnish
National Institute for Health and Welfare), see
http://www.rokotusinfo.fi/tiedostot/thl-laskutus-091207_html.

To assure the highest integrity, and hence public confidence, in its
activities, WHO policies require that all experts serving in an advisory role
agree to disclose any circumstances which could give rise to a potential
conflict of interest (i.e., any interest which may affect, or may reasonably be
perceived to affect, the expert's objectivity and independence). Since you have
been selected as a WHO expert in the activity described below, you are requested
to disclose in this Declaration of Interest (DoI) form any financial,
professional or other interest relevant to the subject of the work or meeting in
which you will be involved and any interest that could be significantly affected
by the outcome of the meeting or work. You are also asked to declare relevant
interests of others who may, or may be perceived to, unduly influence your
judgment (such as immediate family members, employers, close professional
associates or any others with whom you have a substantial common personal,
financial or professional interest.)

I was very surprised to see at
http://www.who.int/immunization/sage/Final_LOP_DOI_16_Nov_09.pdf that professor Juhani Eskola, a SAGE member, has not disclosed the
conflict of interest resulting from GlaxoSmithKlines funding of an estimated 6
million euros at year 2009. The funding of 6 million euros (estimated by
National Institute for Health and Welfare, Dr Terhi Kilpi, working under
professor Eskola) is awarded to the National Institute for Health and Welfare,
Eskola's employer. The conflict of interest resulting from the 6 million euros
of funding and ordering of the GlaxoSmithKline Pandemrix vaccine by National
Institute for Health and Welfare for 37 million euros has received quite a lot
of publicity in Finland. Even the Minister of Health has decided that things
have to be changed because of the conflicts of interest have become untolerable,
see for example
http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/sika/index.shtml/arkistot/kotimaa/2009/11/1003417

... Thank-you for your important message. The responsible officer for the
SAGE Committee is Dr Phillip Duclos, who I have copied on this message, for
further action. I have also copied Drs Okwo-bele and Kieny who have senior line
management responsibilities for the Committee.

Please be assured that WHO takes the issue of conflicts of interest very
seriously, and we will revert to you as soon as possible on the issue you have
highlighted.

Regards

To WHO:

... Judging from the Danish newspaper Information (original at
http://www.information.dk/218247apparently machine translated below to English so it might have errors),
it seem WHO may have incorrect or misleading information on the nature of the
GlaxoSmithKline pneumococcal trial which is contracted to professor Eskola's
employer. The trial is one required for marketing authorization by the European
medicines authority EMEA, i.e. is part of GlaxoSmithKline's product development.

It may be pertinent for WHO to also know professor Eskola's involvment in
National Institute of Health and Welfare's research policies as the
second-in-charge of the Institute. The National Institute of Health and Welfare
has been repeatedly reprimanded by the Finnish oversight officials due to
failures in upholding the Finnish law and informed consent in clinical trials;
recently on a trial funded by GlaxoSmithKline. A few years back the institute
was reprimanded for failures in proper procedures in a trial funded by an infant
formula manufacturer and done on Finnish newborns (the FinDia trial, see for
example
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Finnish_parliamentary_ombudsman_faults_infant_formula_study). The Institute's apparent response has been, instead of mending their
procedures, to campaign for a law which would take away the parental consent
requirement altogether, in direct contradiction of medical research ethical
principles and the EU directive.

In the infant formula study, the institute did not tell infant's parents that
the primary funding came from an infant formula company; thus the parents were
not able to give informed consent. Professor Eskola was involved in
correspondence regarding publication of an article partly based on the Findia
trial's results. Professor Eskola's answer to the editor of the journal claimed
there were no issues with the trial, in direct contradiction to the
Parliamentary Ombudsman's findings described in the abovementioned news article.
The Institute was reprimanded in 2006 also for not getting permission from both
parents as required by Finnish law.

In the marketing authorization -related vaccine trial funded by
GlaxoSmithKline, the trial staff did not seek permission from both parents,
despite the Finnish law and the earlier reprimand. Thus they got a new reprimand
in 2009, in which it was also found that the information given to participants
was insufficient to result in an informed consent. We have contacted the
European medicines agence EMEA and provided them with information on the trial.

WHO has recently discovered that the Finnish National Institute of Health and
Welfare has a research contract with GSK. The contract is a research project on
pneumococcal vaccine within the Finnish vaccination programme. WHO will take
appropriate action in relation to anything that might be perceived as conflicts
of interest in this matter. "

Update: According to a Swedish business news site Ment.se, professor Eskola
belongs to the secret WHO expert group with a key role in declaring a swine
influenza pandemic. It is not clear from the news article what Ment.se is basing
the claim on.